Snow White Rags
by Fazadragonhart
Summary: The last thing Ruby expected in her summer backpacking trip is meeting a scruffy, guitar-strumming, white-haired girl singing "Country Roads" while hitchhiking a truck. But damn, despite being a total bitchy prick, that girl is actually really hot! Ruby might or might not have a crush! Things surely won't go wrong, even when she has lots more than meets the eye.


**One**

**Country Roads, Take Me Home**

"I can't believe I have to do this again!"

Ruby roared and kicked the pebbles on the side of the road. Her rucksack gently thumping the ground despite her rage, for she was no way busting her birthday present from her sister. Whipping out her phone, she found the coverage was poor—not that it actually mattered. It wasn't like she could order an Uber ride in the middle of Colorado wilderness. Unless Uber offered some crazy stuff like helicopter ride.

Defeated, Ruby stretched her right arm to the max and popped a thumbs up.

While not the first time she had to resort to hitchhiker's strategy, she tried to avoid hitchhiking before it became a bad habit in her. She was just so lucky nothing bad happened during her career as a hitchhiker, but who knew one day she rolled a natural 1 for her hitchhiking luck. Unfortunately, this time she had no choice but to throw her dice and find a ride to hitch. Numerically, Argus wasn't that far, but still at a daunting distance away if she had no other means of transportation beside her legs.

She started it all with a bright smile of optimism which quickly wilted under the gnarly summer sun. A granola bar and half a bottle of water later, her patience died with a bang of frustrated screech. "Oh come on somebody just let me hitch a ride!" She threw her arms into the air and flailed them wildly like a possessed inflatable tube man in a shoddy car dealership. "Heeeeey! Anyone please pull over! My legs are killing me!"

Suddenly a dingy-looking truck answered her plea and pulled over. There was a subtle smell of oil coming from it, with tangy stench of rust and… oh wait, why it also faintly stunk like chicken turd?

Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

"Hey, you need a ride?" The driver, a young blonde man with blue eyes, asked. "Hello?"

"Oh, umm, yes! You're going to Argus, right?"

"Yeah." The young man opened the door from inside, revealing the passenger seat was cluttered with boxes of whatnots with funny smell. "Oh, sorry, let me move these stuffs to the back—"

Ruby waved her hands with an awkward grin. "It's okay! I'll just sit on the back!"

One rule Ruby had for hitchhiking; avoid shotgun seat as possible. Even with female drivers. Creeps and predators come in any size, shape, genders, orientations, and all. Better be safe than having her name on the missing person list, or worse, making the headline nationwide for an unsolved murder case.

On the back of the stinky truck, she was relieved by the lack of any chicken turds despite the ghost of its stench. Only sacks of what she suspected as grains for cattle feeding, farming tools, bundled hays and—oh, she wasn't alone there. There was another human being in the form of a girl in scruffy-looking white t-shirt and blue checkered flannel shirt. She also wore a frayed knee length jeans—which probably was a longer pair but accidents ripped one of the knees and she decided to just cut them short. Her unkempt ponytail was tied askew to the right, and Ruby was wondering if that girl was drunk while tying her hair this morning.

Wait, her hair was so pale it was almost pure white to the roots. Damn, how hardcore this girl bleached sunch long hair? And how come it still looked so soft and fabulous?

Little did Ruby knew, the white-haired stranger set her glaring ice blue eyes on her. Ruby flashed a jittery smile in the awkward revelation of being caught staring too long to be considered polite. "Uh… Hi?"

The truck suddenly coughed up a worrying rattling noise and jerked forward. Ruby fell to her butt, but luckily the thick hay bundle protected her from breaking her tailbone. There was a soft feminine giggle which definitely wasn't hers, but when Ruby looked at the only other female in the scene, she had the typical resting bitch face on while tuning the guitar on her lap.

Now getting a better look at her, Ruby realized the white-haired girl was actually pretty good-looking, if not drop dead gorgeous. But what the hell with that scary frowny face—and was that a _scar_ on her left eye? She'd better not turn out to be a troublemaking redneck or some sort!

She still would make a totally hot anime character, though.

Ruby was taught not to judge by the cover. So she let herself being comfy in the company of the pretty but scary stranger, freeing her cramped legs and spine to breathe the air of freedom as she put on her best smile to break the ice. "Hi, I'm Ruby!"

The white-haired girl simply side-eyed Ruby and rolled her eyes. _W-What the hell! So rude!_

The rude girl, obviously ignoring Ruby, plucked the strings to the tune she eerily familiar with. Then she started to sing.

_Almost heaven, West Virginia_

_Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River_

Yep. Country Roads. It was Fallout all over again. Too bad Ruby didn't have the power armor or some Nuka Cola with her for best experience. Fallout had always been her favorite video game series, but she would never ever buy the bugfest that was Fallout 76.

For a moment she forgot how rude this creature with crazily bleached hair was. It was just too perfect to have Country Roads playing on the back of this stinky truck, zooming through the mountainous countryside on a lazy summer day. Ruby couldn't help but joined when the famous reff kicked in.

_Country roads, take me home_

_To the place I belong_

_West Virginia, mountain mama_

_Country roads, take me home_

She didn't stop singing when Ruby's not-so-in-tune voice crashed to the party, and the backpacking girl happily turned this into a merry sing-along session. The song ended with Ruby's overzealous "Take me home!" and a smile for the stranger with a hearty praise. "You have a really really nice voice!"

The guitar-strumming stranger only raised her eyebrows—in cynical fashion—before diddling with her guitar again. Not even a "thank you", or at least nod? Well, that was really a whole nother level of rude. Why Ruby even bothered to make a friendly conversation with her in the first place.

"And yours is so lovely Cthulhu himself goes insane from listening to you," she suddenly quipped. Ouch. Ruby was nowhere a decent singer, but that was really mean! "What a backpacker is doing in Argus? It's doesn't have anything even worth to be a tourist trap," the rude girl asked.

"I've been spending my summer backpacking in Texas and Rocky Mountains. My sister is a surveyor at the geothermal survey site near Argus, so I make it my last stop before going back to Massachusetts with her!" Ruby smiled, barely realizing the overexcitement in her voice. "And oh! Do you play Fallout games? 'Country Roads' is their soundtrack!"

"I don't play video games."

From there, their conversation fell flat on its face. Ruby couldn't figure out what to talk about without irritating the grumpy rude stranger. Or maybe her voice was too pitchy and annoying?

It seemed the old wisdom of "don't talk to strangers" wasn't so wrong, even in went against how Ruby made out the best of her backpacking adventures.

The silence didn't stay long, as the rude grump started singing some kind of country songs. That, and her earlier sour attitude, didn't stop Ruby humming along to the song. As if cued by the music, the generic view of grass and trees curtseyed to make way for the grand spectacle; a pristine lake sparkling with bluish shine surrounded by lush greeneries of forest and rising knolls. Silhouette of faraway mountains and azure summer sky framed the lake in perfect natural design. The humble town of her destination sat on the corner of the breathtaking horizon, slowly but sure zooming into the vision.

Ruby's jaw unhinged in a wide smile and her deft fingers swiftly eternalize all of it with her phone. Done taking another content for her Instagram, she secretly taking a glance at the unkind stranger and had her breath taken away again. The way the wind blowing her off-center drunk ponytail was so fabulous it put even the best shampoo commercials to shame. And boy oh boy, did she have heavenly voice slicked with charming guitar rocking that could make even the straightest girls swoon! If only she wasn't such a rude prick, Ruby would've been head over heels in a heartbeat.

What? Her own heartbeat was going rodeo wild? Nope, that was just your imagination!

The truck passed a wooden billboard with chipped paint job, "Arriving at Argus" written on it in big bold letters (Wait, shouldn't have it been "Arriving in Argus"?), as they entered the town. Argus might be just one of another generic rural town in the mountains, but still fascinating nonetheless. It reminded her a lot of Patch, but quieter and colder due to the elevation.

The ride stopped somewhere in the middle of the town. The blonde guy got off the truck. "Welcome to Argus!" He offered his hand, but she already hopped down on her own, much to his dismay. "Umm, you sure you want to stop here? I can drive you to your last stop you know."

"It's okay. My sister can pick me up from here. Thank you for the ride!"

He looked at her, looking almost hopeful for something from her. She only laughed awkwardly. "Well, iIf you say so…" he sighed and looked over his shoulder. "Hey Weiss! Get your ass down here!"

The white-haired grump joined him into what seemed to be a hardware store and loaded things from the shop to the truck. The blonde guy winked at Ruby before climbing into the truck. That Weiss girl went for the shotgun seat, not before rolling her eyes at Ruby of course, then the truck drove away.

Now that she'd been in the town proper, the mobile signal finally on its full bars again. She hit the speed dial for her sister. "Hey Yang! Guess what, I'm already in Argus!"

"_Where are you now, Rubes? I'm gonna pick you up."_

Ruby looked around for a good landmark to use. "I'm at an intersection near a hardware store and a cafe. Is that clear enough? Do I need to send you the GPS location?"

"_Nah, Argus isn't a big town and I already know it like the back of my hand. Stay put, I'll be there in a jiffy."_

After fifteen minutes or so, another truck pulled over for Ruby. But this time it was a luxurious double cabin ride with no chicken turd stink on it. The window went down revealing Yang in all her blonde glory and rocking a pair of aviator. "Hop on, sis. You can put your rucksack on the backseat."

Ruby settled herself and her rucksack comfortably, enjoying the high-class suspension system and premium seat instead of scratchy hay on the back of a bumpy old truck.

"So how's school? Easy As for you?"

"Easy As? More like _eat ass_! All those sleepless nights in the library and I still got some Bs!"

"Welp, that's life at MIT for ya. At least you have it worlds better than me and my Cs. You aced all your classes in previous semesters anyway, so you still gonna graduate with that sweet sweet _cum laude_, you know." At the red light, Yang lowered her aviator and winked at Ruby. "Cs the silver lining and don't forget to love your Bs, honey!"

Ruby cringed, but laughed nonetheless. Here came Yang's insufferable lame puns, but that was one of many things she missed from her sister.

"How did you reach Argus? Hitchhiking a ride again?" Yang side-eyed Ruby, driving the truck past the green light in low speed. "I told you to stop it. It's dangerous."

"I have no choice. I took the wrong bus and long story short, shit happened. I thought I could walk all the way to Argus from there."

"You know you can always call me for a ride."

"There's no coverage outside the town!"

"Fine fine. At least you're here in one piece," Yang sighed. "You didn't hitch a ride with weirdos, right?"

"Nope. Just a blonde boy driving an old truck and a girl named Weiss with me on the back."

"Weiss? The one with long white hair, blue eyes, and a scar?"

"Uh, yeah, she is."

"She's a nice girl, even if she can come across as rude sometimes. But she didn't do something funny to you, did she?"

Ruby shook her head. "Aside from being a prick, nope."

"Good thing I've told Blake to make dinner for three today. My big sis radar never fails me." Yang laughed. "Anyways, you don't have a place to stay in Argus, right? Just crash here till we're going back to Massachusetts."

"You sure Blake won't mind?"

They arrived at a small house Yang rented for her stay in Argus for her job. Yang chuckled as she stepped out of her car. "Why would she? You're her favorite soon-to-be sis-in-law." She opened the door and entered with a loud cheer, "Blake, honey! We're home!"

Blake welcomed Yang with a peck on the lips and gave Ruby a hug. "You two are just in time. Dinner's ready soon."

Ruby walked into savory fragrance of baked salmon and her mouth watered almost instantly. It was really nice to dine with warm home-cooked meal again after weeks of fast food, stale convenience store meals and canned edibles.

Her self control almost broke when a plate of salmon fillet with a side of mashed potatoes and peas served in front of her. Still, she could manage to take some civilized bites of her meal, letting the juiciness melt in her mouth before she wolfed down her dinner.

Blake chuckled and shook her head gently. "Well, you seem to be really enjoying your dinner there."

Ruby nodded eagerly with cheeks puffed by food and swallowed everything in one mighty gulp. "It's just so good!" She smiled widely. "How's your new book, Blake?"

"It's going really smoothly. The final draft is finally done. Actually I'm already starting a rough outline for my brand new project. It's sad we're going to leave Argus soon, though, a quiet town in the mountain is like a heaven for a writer to find her muse," Blake said. "Speaking of it, when are we going to leave, Yang? "

"There's no fixed date. But if everything goes as planned, probably around a week or two."

After finishing her dinner clean, Ruby offered to help Blake with the dishes but Yang ushered her to the couch to lie down and get her rest. Her worn body didn't protest much, and soon she found herself curling comfily on the couch checking on her Instagram notifications. People liked her snapshots of Rocky Mountain during her trip, and the comment was filled with generic praise for the beautiful view to daring classmates and even underclassmen trying to flirt with her.

She uploaded her latest pic, the shot of the lake on her way to Argus, and cheekily captioned it with "Country roads, take me home". Almost instantly Penny and Pyrrha gave it their likes, and the latter also left a comment on it.

**victorypyre:** This lake is my childhood! You make me really miss Argus!

Pyrrha was from Argus? Ruby never knew that. She quickly made a vow to take a lot of pics of Argus and the lake during her stay. Her red-haired best friend would totally love it.

"Man, I'm all beat!" Ruby stretched her arms and yawned widely. The silent pop on her spine and neck kicked away the fatigue and it felt just so good.

"Of course you are. You were that klutz who took the wrong bus and marched all the way lugging big ass heavy rucksack." Yang threw a blanket to Ruby's face and laughed.

Ruby pouted and wrapped herself with the blanket. Good warm meal in her belly easily casted sleepiness on her tired body. Gleefully she surrendered to the heaviness hanging on her eyes and settled herself to a good sleep with eagerness to face an exciting new day when she woke up.

Summer vacation was going to end soon, but surely she would make the best of it here.

* * *

**Oh wat dis? Just some senseless comedic summer romance featuring redneck Weiss, because I'm salty my laptop suddenly got smoked and I lost a month of progress on my main White Rose project. **

**Wait. Redneck Weiss? Yeah, you heard it right.**


End file.
